31 January 2014

I haven't been on here much, partly because most of what I could write would just come out sounding bratty and whiny and complainy. Haha. Nothing bad. It's not like my legs have fallen off or our house burned down or we accidentally let our Netflix subscription die or anything terrible like that.

That crazy cold I got before Christmas still won't go away, and is back again in full force. What is up with that? Poor David, who thought his overtime would go away when he went to day shift was waaaaayyy off base. Most days he leaves before the kids get up and gets home after they're in bed. They really miss him because they don't get why he has to be at work all the time. They wait for him and wait for him and are so disappointed when they have to go to bed without seeing him.

Small victory/poorly-timed-event: Christian decided he wanted to start wearing big boy underwear last night. This is great news, except it means I have to potty train him. Fortunately, I think because he showed such great interest and self-initiation, he's doing a great job. Only 8 hours in and he can already go by himself when he needs to. He says to Daphne and I, "I'm so proud of me!"

Another small joy is that both my kids rest at the same time with little issue, so that's 45 minutes starting promptly at 1 o'clock where I don't have to talk to anyone.

See, I know most husbands who work 12-14 hour days work more than 4 days a week, so I know we have it fairly easy there. My kids can both walk and talk and tell me what they need. They rest at the same time. Every mom in the world is going through these exact same things right now. That's why I know not to throw myself any pity parties.

Still, I may have spent one of those recent 45 minute chunks Googling "hotel spas that do prenatal massages." I think this one looks good. I told David about it and he said, "yeah, maybe we could go there for a night before the baby is born." I didn't tell him I was thinking 'me' and like, 5 nights, but whatever.

24 January 2014

We got to meet the buyers of our Parkrose house, something I was really hoping for and yet knew is not always common practice these days. But we met them and they are the sweetest people; we even exchanged contact information. I hope they invite us over sometime. If not, at least we're friends with enough of our old neighbors that we can go hang out with them and spy on the new people. Nothing creepy about that.

Tuesday afternoon we had to drop a few things off to the new people (garage keys and a smoke alarm that all accidentally got packed). They weren't home, and would you believe that they had all the blinds drawn tightly shut? Didn't they know how desperately I wanted to do some peaking into their windows? Don't be shy, folks. Leave those blinds open.

Daphne understands why we moved and knows Mr Speck is building us a new house soon. She's been fine with the move, although she thinks our rental is really tiny and she likes our old house better. Christian still asks to go home to mommy's house. He's all done with our friend's house, he says. Poor kid. I'm hoping that once we're all unpacked and feeling more settled he'll be OK.

Those 2 weeks of moving and closing on the old house were, well, awful. I've never sold a house before and never moved a family. Selling sounds so 'simple,' but I guess nothing could prepare us for the emotional and physical stress that comes from that undertaking. I remember a friend recently being so stressed out while selling his house and I couldn't understand why...I don't think it's understandable until you're in the middle of it. I would go to bed at night sick to my stomach about how we were going to handle the next morning, and feed the kids lunch with a sick stomach about how we were going to handle the afternoon, and then go to bed with a sick stomach about the next morning; it was a lovely cycle.

It's made us so thankful that we have such utter confidence in where we will end up. All this work and stress would not be worth moving into an 'OK' house, since we're moving because we want to and not because we have to. There were houses we really liked that were maybe on smaller lots, or didn't have a front porch like I really wanted, or a formal dining room (I have a thing for formal dining rooms) or a master bathroom. We would think the house had enough things that we did like that we could overlook the things we were disappointed about, but now that we've experienced this selling process I am just so thankful that God kept us from those other places, even though it was a disappointment at the time.

And now, in our little house on our tiny lot, where I can look out my bedroom window and see at least 13 other houses within plain sight (for reals, I counted), we get to look forward to the 'fun' part of this whole process. Don't mind my crazy pinning on Pinterest...we are more than ready for this next part of planning our new house.

22 January 2014

*The kids are sharing a room in our rental and will continue to share when we move into 'the big house,' as Daphne usually calls it. We set up D's bumble bed and C's crib, but Christian kept asking to sleep in the bumble bed until finally maybe 3 nights into our move we let him have the top bunk. (Daph has decided she wants the bottom now.) A night or two of that and he just plain wanted to share Daphne's bed with her. For as snuggly as she is, she did not appreciate his wanting to share a pillow at night.

So the compromise of the blanket curtain was born and now they are both happy. Although at bedtime I have to say to Christian "do not bite Daphne's toes," because he likes to do that.

*Although our house sale closed on Friday, our money didn't land in our bank until yesterday. Yesterday afternoon also happened to be the first afternoon since we moved that we didn't have plans, so it officially became Celebration Evening. We bought bar stools at Ikea and went to Red Robin, the kids' favorite restaurant. Nothing more festive than that combination. A teeny tiny baby and his family happened to be sitting in the booth next to us, so I pointed him out to Christian. He said, "Yucky, that's gross." It appears we have a lot of work to do to prepare him for our new baby.

*Speaking of babies, he also thinks that since there is a baby in my tummy, clearly that means I ate a baby with my mouth. Maybe that's why he thinks babies are gross?

*During our bedtime prayers I ask the kids what they want to pray about. Daphne usually asks that God will keep her safe from nightmares and that He will heal everyone's owies, and Christian asks to pray for pirates. So we pray that all the pirates will learn to love Jesus, because I think most pirates are kind of bad people and it seems a little Jesus in their lives wouldn't hurt? I'm not sure.

*This morning on our way to BSF Daphne told me that Daddy is her favorite person in our family because she just likes people with short hair and people with beards. I lose on both accounts, I guess.

*Out of the blue the other morning Daph asked, "Are there still marigolds on this earth?" I had no idea where she was going with that question. I know she loves marigolds, so maybe she was concerned because she doesn't see them around right now because it's winter? I asked her what she meant.

"Marigolds are the good things God does," she said. "I learned that at Bible study. So are there still marigolds on this earth?"

Miracles. Are there still miracles on this earth.

You betcha, sweet girl. May your eyes and heart always be sensitive to recognizing God's hand in your life.

06 January 2014

Today starts David's weekend and also our week (or two) of moving. We don't close on our house for another two weeks, but we are happy to get a head start on moving out so that we don't have to feel so rushed. Turns out moving, while caring for two preschoolers, while being 5 months pregnant, is not quite the trifecta of fun it sounds like it could be. Strangely enough.

what happened in the living room while I was cleaning ceilings, light fixtures, and washing drapes

what happened while trying to get out the door on this hectic morning

And yes, because clogged pipes on inspection day isn't enough, a chimney fire on moving day is a definite bonus. Fortunately the chimney itself is apparently built to withstand a nuclear attack and held it's own; besides some smoke and ash in the house, all is fine. Just no more fires in the woodstove until the chimney can be cleaned, which is pretty exciting since this morning our furnace was disconnected in order to decommission the oil tank.

I tell ya, unless you are going to be making big bucks on selling your house, don't move!!! Between inspections, repairs, closing costs, moving costs, 20% down on a new place, and random things like chimney fires and pipe issues, it seems wise to just stay put unless there is cash aplenty to cover all those costs. Goodness.

But at least we found a good rental! And at this point we can't get in there soon enough. It hurts my heart to pay more on a rental than we do for our mortgage (sheesh...renting is expensive!) but since we have a dog we were limited in where we could go. We're moving to SE, and not even 'cool' SE like Hawthorne or Laurelhurst. Lents. Yep. Probably won't be long before Christian will be hauling his wagon around the neighborhood collecting scrap metal and every time we go to Target Daphne will be trying to steal a shopping cart to take home.

Before you get nervous about safety in visiting us at our new place...it's not like you'll have to dodge bullets as you run from your car to our front door. More like, don't stop at the ATM first, pull out hundreds of dollars and then leave the cash in the front seat of your car while leaving the windows rolled down. On the other hand, if you want to get rid of some metal, just leave it in our front yard. I'm sure it will be gone in a flash.

David did some good background checks of our neighborhood, and no police calls have been made there in over 2 years. The little dead-end street we're on is actually really cute, with nice neighbors who all know each others' names. (The next door neighbors have 7 kids; Daphne will be in heaven. The neighbor we met this morning gave us pen/flashlight combos with his and his wife's names on them. How cool is that?) Our house was built in '05, the owner and his family having lived there until this past summer, and now he's completely fixed it up with new flooring, paint, appliances, etc. It's really quite darling with a good backyard for Lola and the kids. It will be practically vacation-like with no house projects to work on, no yard work to do, and only 1100 square feet of house to keep clean. We'll probably all get really fat and lazy in the next 8 months. David mentioned that he may take up scrapbooking.

so cute! lovely front porch!

first thing we moved in was a drying rack

The next two weeks will probably make my hair turn gray, but then it will be over! I kinda can't wait.

01 January 2014

Christmas week was wild and fun, and now we're packing away Christmas and packing away our house, which is a rather sad combination. It looks like we're moving next week, guys. NEXT WEEK.

I keep looking at Christmas pictures to remember what our house looked like when it wasn't half empty, and mulling over all the 'lasts' we're experiencing.

(warning: photo heavy.)

last street football game on Christmas Eve

reading The Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve

last Christmas morning stockings

After Christmas Eve at our house and Christmas morning opening socks, we jetted down to Albany for two days of more Christmas fun.

stockings at GiGi's

presents downstairs at Gigi's

I finally get to sit at the adult table

Boxing Day at GAB's, playing trivia and Skyping in GAL from AK.

arts and crafts at GAB's

Then we came home for our traditional family Christmas day. We've really enjoyed spending a few crazy days with family, but then getting to spend a day doing our gifts at home without feeling like we have to rush off to another event.

I love that it takes the kids FOREVER to open their gifts because we have the time to open one and play with it for as long as we want before moving on. It's so relaxing, calm, and fun.

About Me

This blog records our family adventures while raising 3 kids. Daphne (12/24/08) is smart as a whip and really funny. She wears the braces on her legs because she was born with club feet and they are ever-so-slowly getting straightened out. She has skeletal dysplasia, AKA an undiagnosed type of dwarfism. She thought it would be good to be born with something that no one else in the world has. Christian (8/31/11) likes cars and airplanes and tractors and trains. He has the best smile, and loves snuggling with his mama and working outside with his dad. Jonas (6/13/14) is a happy, smiley, laughing, chatty baby, with a double chin and under-arm rolls. His older siblings are quite enamored with him, as are his parents.